‘Long’ing for the open road

THE Valley of a 1000 Hills, the name says it all, picturesque, scenic and every traveller’s oasis. However, a little known fact about them are these hills are every longboarders dream, in fact they are to them what Hawaii is to surfers. One man who can attest to that is Durban North’s Tyler McDonald.

The Peg free-rider is fairly new to the sport but his destiny was charted when a friend bought a longboard. “I’d always been into skateboarding so the transition to longboarding was a fairly natural one,” he said.

For the uninitiated, a longboard was once described as a skateboard that thinks it’s a snowboard. With longer decks than the shortboard skateboards, longboards are more stable at higher speeds and their softer wheels provide better grip. The longer form of is made up of three elements, the first is beach cruising, the second is free-riding and sliding and the third is downhill bombing.

For Tyler hurtling down at a speed only bested by bobsleds is all well and good but his preference lies free-riding. “My ultimate goal is to produce the longest toe slide. I try as hard as I can to give something back to my sponsors and to a sport that’s given so much,” he said.

The Durban North resident longboards everyday religiously and hopes to compete overseas. “That’s something I’m working towards, to compete in different countries around the world. A massive part of the sport is the camaraderie and spirit among fellow longboarders. You could be anywhere in the world and feel like the guys around you are family,” he said